Improvement in wash-boards



H. L. St. CLAIR. Wash-Board.

No. 201,063. Patented March5, I878.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. I

HARRY L. ST. CLAIR, OF VINELAND, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF AND STEPHEN LEACH, OF MALAGA, NEW JERSEY.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASH-BOARDS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 201,063, dated March 5, 1878; application filed February 14, 1878.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HARRY L. ST. CLAIR, of Vineland, in the county of Cumberland and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Wash-Boards; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same.

The invention is an improvement in the class of hand wash-boards having afriction-surface formed of rollers. I

The invention consists in the construction and arrangement of parts, as hereinafter described.

In the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, Figure 1 is a side or edge view, and Fig. 2 a front view, of my improved wash-board. Figs. 3 and 4 are end views of different forms of rollers.

The frame of the wash-board is composed of parallel side bars A A, headpiece B, and lower cross-bar 0, connected in the usual manner. The rotating rollers D, which form the friction or rubbing surface, are preferably square or polygonal in cross-section, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, but may, instead, be simply grooved in such manner as to form corrugations or rounded ribs, as shown in Fig. 4. The ends of the rollers are reduced to form journals, which enter sockets in the inner sides of the bars A A.

It is obviously necessary to provide for convenient insertion and removal of the rollers, collectively or individually, as when the parts of the boards are put together in the process of manufacture, or when the rollers are injured or worn out, or others of a different configuration are to be substituted. To this end I construct one of the side bars A with a longitudinal adjustable section, a, which is hinged at its upper end b, and secured at its lower end by screws 0 c and a metal plate, d, placed in a recess of corresponding shape. Thus, by removing the lower screw 0, the hinged section a may be raised or thrown out at an angle to the main portion of the bar A for removal or substitution of rollers, as occasion may require.

It will be seen in Fig. 1 that half of the sockets for the journals on the left-hand end of the rollers are formed in the section a, and the other half in the body of the bar A.

This construction of wash-board enables the article to be furnished at a low cost, and is particularly advantageous in respect to facility of change or substitution of rollers.

By use of roller wash-boards the operation of rubbing clothes by hand is greatly facilitated.

What claim is- As the improvement in roller wash-boards, hereinbefore specified, in combination with the frame and rollers, the hinged section a and a fastening device therefor, substantially as shown and described.

The above specification of my invention signed by me this 9th day of February, 1878.

HARRY L. ST. CLAIR.

Witnesses:

OHAs. A. PETTIT, SOLON O. KEMoN. 

